1270 Fifth Avenue

Despite the urge to simply dismiss this beige box as the ugliest apartment building fronting Central Park, 1270 Fifth Avenue is actually historically notable for being the first middle-income co-op apartment building constructed in Manhattan under Section 213 of the National Housing Act, which authorized Government-insured loans to private developers of co-operative housing. The act was passed in 1950 and by 1957 nearly 22,000 co-operative apartments were created in New York’s metro region. This building, completed that year, was the first in Manhattan.